Mother found not guilty of most serious charges in gunshot death of Liquarry Jefferson, 8

Our investigation has established that sometime before February 20, 2007, Lakeisha Gadson obtained and/or permitted her then-fifteen-year-old son, Jayquan McConnico, to obtain an unregistered 9 millimeter Norinco semi-automatic pistol. McConnico stored the loaded gun in the top drawer of his dresser in his bedroom in the family home at 266 Seaver Street, Apartment 6.
http://www.universalhub.com/node/13762

Well which is it? Obtained or permitted? That seems like a ambiguous (flimsy) fact set to go to court with.

If she obtained and gave it to her 16 year old then the facts support an "involuntary manslaughter" charge - accidental killing of another person because of criminal or reckless negligence. If she didn't know he had it (didn't permit it) or even if she knew but had no power over him to secure it safely, then the charge was excessive. The jury agreed.

In what her Boston criminal defense lawyer is calling the “second-most painful thing to ever happen to her,” Lakeisha Gadson is on trial for the Massachusetts involuntary manslaughter of her 8-year-old son. Liquarry Jefferson was accidentally shot by his cousin, now 10, in 2007 with a handgun owned by the victim’s half-brother, Jayquan McConnico, then 15. If convicted, Gadson faces a maximum 20-years behind bars. She also is charged with Massachusetts assault and battery on a child with substantial injury, reckless endangerment of a child, misleading police, and firearms violations.

Prosecutors are holding Gadson accountable for her younger son’s death because they say that she allowed McConnico to keep a loaded gun in a dresser that was easily accessible to children. Gadson maintains that she never gave McConnico permission to own a gun and that she didn’t know it was in their home. The teenager was also charged in his younger brother’s death and with the reckless and wanton storage of an unregistered pistol in an area that a child could reach. He pleaded guilty to the charges and will stay at a youth detention center until he turns 21.

On Wednesday, Jefferson’s cousin testified about the accidental Roxbury shooting. He said that his cousin showed him the gun, which they both thought was not loaded. The boy accidentally pulled the trigger, shooting Jefferson in the stomach. Jefferson was pronounced dead at Boston Medical Center.

Gadson, 33, has five children. She originally told police that gang members had forced their way into the apartment but later recanted her story and admitted that her nephew accidental shot her son.
http://www.bostoncriminallawyerblog.com/2010/08/ma...

It's what she did or didn't do that determines if she is guilty, not what her son did or didn't do.

First, JAYQUAN, 16, pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter.

Then the DA went to court to prove the mom committed the same crime but as you can see (in their own words above) without knowing if she owned the weapon, her son owned it, or her son owned it and she did not secure it adequately. They failed to present that evidence because they did not have it. And that evidence is central to the question of her guilt.

During the investigation she lied about a phantom gang member being the perpetrator which goes to her credibility but it does not substitute for their lack of evidence. It is the responsibility of the investigators and DA to charge and prosecute on the basis of the evidence. It's what they can prove, not what they think.

They did not have the evidence to convict her of involuntary manslaughter. The court and the jury did its job.

(... still waiting for the DA's lapdog to show up here and post about the appeal.)